CNN
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With the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah strained by retaliatory attacks less than a week after it took effect, Israel’s defense minister threatened on Tuesday to directly target the Lebanese state if the deal falls apart.
Monday was the deadliest day since the deal entered into force last Wednesday, with Israeli airstrikes killing nine people in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah opened fire on Israeli-occupied territory in response to Israel’s violation of the ceasefire. It became.
“If we go back to war, we will act with force and we will act deeper,” Israel Katz said Tuesday during a visit to the Israel Defense Forces’ 146th Division near the Lebanese border.
If the ceasefire breaks down, “there will be no immunity for the Lebanese state,” he said. Even if in the past we separated the Lebanese state from Hezbollah and all of Beirut from Dahiya, which would have been a huge blow, that will no longer be the case. ”
This comes a day after Israel launched airstrikes across southern Lebanon. The attack was in retaliation for Hezbollah’s firing of two rockets into Israeli-occupied territory, itself a response to Israel’s near-daily attacks on Lebanon that began the day after the ceasefire began last Wednesday. It is a reaction.
The gunfight has cast doubt on the viability of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, but State Department spokesman Matthew Miller insisted on Monday that “we do not see it breaking down.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves in the Defense Ministry, said in an interview with Israel’s Can Radio that the U.S. and French governments have privately informed Israel that they believe it is in violation of the agreement. Ta. The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said Israel had violated the ceasefire agreement “approximately 100 times” since it took effect.
“Neither the French nor the Americans liked it very much,” Smotrich said, referring to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon since the armistice. “However, in the days following the ceasefire, the Israel Defense Forces have been very decisive in enforcing the ceasefire, both against Hezbollah and against civilians attempting to return to villages in border areas without permission.”
Since the day after the ceasefire took effect last week, Israel has launched airstrikes in Lebanon every day except Tuesday. The military said it acted “in response to several acts by Lebanese Hezbollah that violated the agreement between Israel and Lebanon and posed a threat to Israeli civilians.”
Following these attacks, Hezbollah targeted the Shebaa farm in Israeli-occupied territory on Monday. The group said in a statement that Israel “has carried out shootings and airstrikes against civilians across Lebanon, resulting in the martyrdom of civilians and injuring others, and hostile Israeli aircraft have violated Lebanese airspace. He is guilty of continuing this.” Beirut, the capital. ”
A Hezbollah rocket landed in an open area, but no one was injured. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “grave violation of the ceasefire,” and Israel launched airstrikes across southern Lebanon, killing nine people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Smotrich said the Israel Defense Forces hit 29 targets in Monday’s strikes.
Israeli officials say they are not violating the ceasefire, but rather acting to enforce it.
“Yesterday was the first test, as if it were outside the scope of a normal conflict,” Katz said Tuesday, using Israeli terminology to refer to the Shebaa Farms, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and has occupied ever since. “I fired at Mt. Ditch,” he said. . “For us, that is not open to any interpretation. We have responded strongly and will continue to do so.”
The IDF said on Tuesday it had also carried out an airstrike on a car near Damascus, Syria, claiming it had killed Hezbollah leader Salman Nemer Jamaa for his involvement in arms smuggling. Hezbollah does not admit to the murder charge.
Israel rarely acknowledges attacks on Syria. In an unusual announcement last month, it said it had attacked a Hezbollah intelligence service near Damascus.
The ceasefire agreement provides for a cessation of hostilities for 60 days, which negotiators say is the basis for a permanent ceasefire. Meanwhile, Hezbollah fighters are expected to retreat about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border and Israeli ground forces will withdraw from Lebanese territory. Under the agreement, Lebanon will implement stricter surveillance of Hezbollah movements south of the Litani River in the country to prevent the militants from regrouping.
“We will act in full force to enforce all understandings of the ceasefire agreement and will respond with maximum response and zero tolerance,” Katz said.
